12 Tips For Bulk Poster Printing On A Budget

Posters are an ideal product for bulk printing. As a marketer looking to realize your campaign, advertising your business, products or service, promoting your event or as an artist mass-producing your artwork on a budget, our posters will help you deliver.

As a highly competitive online printer, Chilliprinting is able to offer posters printed in bulk of premium quality at amazing prices. You can select from eight different sizes, five quality paper stocks and single or double-sided options. Available quantities range from 10 to 20,000 posters, so you can tailor your order to fit your exact needs. There are no limits to realizing your design or promotional campaign with our bulk poster options.

Our poster print products are already optimized for excellent quality at an incredibly competitive price. Bulk posters are perfect when you’re on a tight budget. In order to help you carry out your print campaign or project even more economically, we have summarized 12 top tips to help you save money by printing bulk posters cost-effectively.

1. Determine Precisely How Many Posters You Need
The earlier you know the exact number of posters you need to print the better. As you go ahead with your marketing, the number might change, but as long as you have an understanding of all the influencing factors, you can easily adjust. Knowing the absolute minimum is good, but keep in mind the optimal number is usually above that. Having slightly more posters on hand gives you a buffer for mishaps. Knowing your requirements will inform the next step.

Be sure to order a few extra prints than you think you need

2. Set Your Objectives

To get the best value out of your bulk poster printing, you have to declare a target you want to achieve. If you’re looking to sell the posters, it could be the minimum profit you want to make on each unit. If your posters are for promotional purposes, ideally you’ll have an understanding of how effective your campaign was, i.e. number of conversions, acquisitions, leads, sign-ups or products sold. Customer behavior can be difficult to gauge, especially when you’re active on several channels. Over time, you’ll gather valuable data on the yield of each print run, but at the most basic level, think of it in terms of cost-per-piece. Compare the absolute minimum quantity to a higher printing volume: cost for each individual poster go down for orders of higher quantities, and will enable you to reach a wider audience. It’s balancing work – don’t shoot for the moon, but whether you’re marketing or selling, definitely print all the posters you need at once. Staggering orders for the volume you need will result in higher costs.

3. Distribute Wisely

Distribution of your posters encompasses your list of clients or prospects, a strategy for targeting, and a method for delivering. You’re hardly going to sell every single poster in person or tack all of them up yourself in places that are relevant to your target audience, but the more you can save on distribution, the better. As a marketer, the important thing is to stretch your budget dollars as far as possible and target your audience in places that are relevant to them. Know your demographic, because after all, you only have a limited supply of posters. Make sure your distribution team is doing a great job getting them in front of prospects that matter to your campaign.

If you’re selling your posters or simply need them at an event, figure your shipping costs into your overall budget as early as possible. Size (and weight) will play a role here and could actually influence your decision of which exact poster size you order (see below also). Streamline your distribution costs by checking details with your mailing service ahead of time.

4. Choose The Right Size And Options

Chilliprinting posters come in eight different sizes and you can choose from five different paper stocks. Additionally, there are options for custom sizes available, though you’ll have to plan in a surcharge. Only you can ultimately determine which size and options are right for your needs, but here are a few pointers: is your poster trying to stand out by size, or can you catch people’s attention with a standard size and flashy design? Will you need to mail posters, and if so, is there a size that is definitely cheaper for mailing? All our papers offer great quality, but for promotions, usually a lower weight is sufficient. You’ll only need to go beyond 100lbs if your posters are up for a long time. Double-sided prints of course only make sense if you’ll be hanging them in places like window fronts.

5. Avoid Stock Photography

Stock images are a helpful tool, but they require a licensing fee. If you resort to free images, they will either scream “stock photo” or be so popular that others have (over)used them before you. Stock photography in general has a vague feeling of familiarity to it which is usually not associated with great design. Focus on the one central idea or information of your poster and illustrate it with simple vector art and clear typography.

Be careful using stock photos, unless they’re of Vince Vaughn…

6. Set Aside Your Design Budget

The success of your poster is determined by a great design. If you’re hiring a designer to take care of that, keep your two budgets for print and design separat. Refrain from cannibalizing one for the other! Designers don’t work for free; if you pay a pittance, your poster will end up looking skimpy. On the other extreme, if you let the design eat up your budget for printing, your great-looking poster won’t be able to unfold its full effect.

7. Design Your Own

By taking matters into your own hands, you can free up a huge chunk of your budget. Designing your own poster takes a little more than PowerPoint skills, though. Luckily for you, there are a lot of free resources out there you can use. Get inspiration from outstanding poster designs and find a free design template upon which to build your poster. Remember: don’t copy someone else’s work as that may ultimately cost you a lot.

8. Customize Your Posters

As an artist, the easiest option to customize your poster for selling is with your autograph. A sharpie signature is possible on all paper stock, but if you’re going to create mixed media pieces by painting on your posters, consider a paper with a weight of 120lbs or greater. As a marketer, you can customize your posters, for example as set for specific locations, areas or events. However, that means higher production costs because of several smaller print runs. You will have to determine if the higher ROI is worth it. Alternatively, you can print a QR code on your poster which leads to a website, newsletter sign-up or event app and segment your prospects that way to target them specifically.

9. Save On Fonts

First off, don’t use too many fonts. It’s best to keep it to one or two and differentiate with font weights. Don’t overload your poster with too much typography and too many typefaces. Professional fonts will also cost a fee. There are many font foundries where you can get free font substitutes which will look great as well, but always check the license to see if you can use it commercially.

Stick with one or maximum two fonts to save some dough

10. Use The Right Blacks

If your poster design uses a lot of black (e.g. in the background), it is especially important to find the right color values for black tones. For example, for CMYK, values of 100%, 30%, 30%, 30% produce the best black. Not taking this into account can make your poster look washed out and appear grey in print. Ultimately, this is a question to discuss with your printer. How does this affect your budget? You’ll avoid posters that have zero ROI because they look unappealing, or having to reprint because of wrong colors.

11. Checking And Proofreading Your Poster

We cannot mention this enough: one very effective way of keeping costs down is simply avoiding reprints because of mistakes. So check, double-check and proofread your poster before you send it to us for printing. Spot all the typos and spelling errors, find all the design flaws, and make sure your poster complies with our requirements. If you have hired an external designer, make sure you communicate these to them from the beginning. We also offer color profiles and templates you can download for free.

12. Consider The Context

A poster for an event or a campaign might only be used one time, or for a limited duration. But chances are that there are several occasions and even different channels where you can use your poster. Maybe you can reuse the design as an ebook cover, website popup, t-shirt design, or other analog medium. Don’t endlessly recycle and oversaturate your audience, but creatively transferring your poster to other mediums can save you some marketing bucks.

Use our tips to stretch your poster printing budget as far as it will go and maximize your return on investment! Check our bulk poster printing options now to find the offer that best suits your needs.

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